Nice find with that Mahsa article! I predict she will last a long time on Apprentice 10, maybe to the Final 5. She it tough and has a combative disposition that make her persona non grata with her teammates, but Trump and Mark Burnett no doubt protected her due to the ratings impact of her controversial personality.

This episode opened with all 3 Trumps presenting the task and evaluation criteria. It is to take over a dog grooming and daycare center in Manhattan for a multi-day period, develop new programs to increase its business and redecorate it. The criteria for judging are value-added features, execution and overall experience of the judges. The judges are the owners of the two grooming/care centers plus the famous Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan. The Project Managers are James and Tyana.

Octane meets Suresh, owner of the NY Center for Dogs. David immediately suggested a major revamp to the entrance to the building and there is agreement on Wade’s idea that a videocam so dog owners can view their pets inside the center is an important feature they want to add. David was sent off to pick up something with 2 other Octane members, but on return found that James had changed his mind about whether the entrance improvements are feasible in the time frame, This led to the first of two major confrontations between David and James, with James urging David to not fold his tent, take his marbles and run, but that is what James did.

Fortitude met with Dale the manager of their facility. Stephanie asked the best question, what was the slowest day of the week so Fortitude can target the program Tailwag Tuesdays to add business that day (which assumes that Tuesday, the day in question, was actually one of the days for this task, which fortunately for Fortitude it was).

Donald Jr. and Ivanka arrived relatively early in the task. Mahsa told Donald Jr. that she was afraid of dogs and should not have been given the assignment of caring for them in the back. Ivanka found James’ vision for the project lacking clarity and hoped he would find it quickly. Wade was given an assignment by James that did not fit his background as the individual on Octane with the most dog-related experience. James elected to ignore a request from Suresh the owner for consultation because he wanted to finish a meeting with Octane. Was that a smart move since Suresh would be judging him? Not really!

Fortitude had issues with Liza, who was handling the critical advertising artwork and its transfer to the external printing function. Critical time was lost when a mini hard disk had to be hand-carried over to the printer to get the job done.

Cesar Milan came and inspected both operations. James’ presentation to him was not better than James had done to Ivanka earlier, causing several of his teammates including Wade to try to take over. Caesar noted the resulting chaos and stated that it was a sign of bad direction to the dogs, since there was no clear pack leader (a major Dog Whisperer key concept for those that have seen his TV show). Cesar did think the webcams were an excellent idea. What he told Donald Trump was not shared on camera.

Trump then held the Boardroom and started in dissecting Octane to discover what had happened to its leadership and why. James did not look good and David was clearly established as a major thorn in the P.M.’s side and if course nominated as its weakest link. Gene supported James in the contention that firing David was necessary to maintain the stability of Octane on this task. James displayed the binder clip that David had wanted to waste critical time on after gene had forgotten it and David wanted to complete his personal vision of the grand entrance. Clint brought up the issue of ignoring Suresh the owner, which Donald Jr. and Ivanka both pounced on to make the point that James had lost valuable planning information.

The same type of discussion on Fortitude established that most of the team believed Liza was its weakest link. Additional discussion ended with Trump telling Liza that she has to live with these bitches.”

The results were finally shared with the teams. Fortitude had won. Steuart did not absolve James of culpability for his mistakes, but he underscored that David’s insubordination had a major negative impact on Octane as well as on Suresh. Trump stated the obvious, that such insubordination reflects baldy on one’s leadership ability. Ivanka stated that the two reasons Octane lost were a bad team dynamic and a focus on the task rather than the business.

Octane eventually had James nominating David and Wade to remain in the Boardroom and the rest were excused. Wade had no business being there, so there was no he was essentially an innocent bystander. He was asked who Trump should fire and clearly stated it should be James. The issue was whether James’ less-than-sterling project management was more responsible or less for the loss than David’s deliberate sabotage. Trump told James he was disappointed with him and told David that his being a wise ass was troubling but not why he was in the boardroom. Trump fired James, as the losing P.M. frequently has to go down with the ship.

David survived but has done himself no favors in being singled out as insubordinate and difficult to manage. Are those qualities that Trump is looking for in an Apprentice?

James indicated in the postscript that he had a new job in the New York State Attorney General’s Office, presumably in the New York city area.

Even before she caught Donald Trump’s eye, Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy got two thumbs up from the Brooklyn DA.

The telegenic young attorney, now featured on Trump’s “The Apprentice,” had become an instant Internet star, featured in films about the DA’s anti-crime initiatives.

“I did videos for the DA’s Office, advertising programs I’m so passionate about,” she said.

The short films featuring the darkhaired TV starlet are broadcast on You- Tube, and can also be found on the Web site of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

“I wasn’t getting paid,” Saeidi-Azcuy said, explaining that videos were shot when she was still an intern fresh out of Brooklyn Law School.

The Post reported yesterday that Saeidi-Azcuy resigned from the DA at least in part because higher-ups weren’t told of her moonlighting for The Donald.

But while she was still there, prosecutors were impressed with the 29-year-old’s poise and confidence in front of the camera

“She did an excellent job,” said Jerry Schmetterer, the district attorney’s spokesman.

Saeidi-Azcuy approached the agency brass and volunteered to shoot the spots.

The agency hired her in January as assistant district attorney at $50,000, a post from which she resigned yesterday to instead focus on her role in this season’s “The Apprentice” on NBC.

Her celebrity status began to interfere with her official duties, Saeidi- Azcuy explained, so the agency transferred her from a job prosecuting cases in Brooklyn Criminal Court to an inside job out of the public eye.

“Due to the success of the show, people were recognizing me — defense attorneys, judges,” she explained. “They did the correct thing and transferred me to a lower profile position.”

Saeidi-Azcuy said she cried for “three hours” after making the decision to resign from the prosecutor’s office, but believed her chance to work with Trump offered a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.

The show’s latest season features 16 candidates who are competing to become an assistant with a six-figure salary in the Trump Organization.

The young attorney said she had toned down her feisty conduct after Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, criticized her abrasiveness on the show.

I knew Mashra wasnt going home. she set Tyana to fail and she fell for it! she didnt have the street smarts to keep her head in the game. she did withdraw and bottom line if you dont participate you will be gone.

I think david should have gone too! he wasnt there for the task. it's not like the celebrities who had prior engagements.

and yes i know all too well about tooth issues. but dont these guys work late hours? he could have came to do something! grab a broom and sweep up all the popcorn!

ahh maybe next week he will insert foot into mouth and knock himdself out of the contender spot!

Thanks Kacpher! I knew Masha wasn't going home, she's a lawyer and knows how to argue. She's also annoying which is another reason why she wasn't fired. If everyone got along there would be no winner. She could even win, she's good at taking credit and denying blame.

This episode begins with Mahsa stating that Tyana, her bitter rival, does not want her to shine. The prior episode conflicts between David and James were highlighted. Wade had promised Trump to step up as P.M. but when Clint claimed that turf Wade backed down in the interest of team harmony. David was unhappy with Steuart for throwing him “under the bus.” Tyana as last week’s winning P.M. got to meet with Russell Simmons. The idea he gave her for creating her own business (write down a plan, execute and gather people around you) is a bit simplistic, but more tangibly he gave her a $10,000 gift certificate for use at Calvin Klein.

The entourage of Trump, Donald Jr. and Ivanka arrived with the founder of Indiana Popcorn co., clearly doing a product placement episode (fees are more than $1 million for those according to what I have heard). What he wanted was a guerilla marketing stunt or event that had the potential to blossom into a viral video. The P.M. were Clint and Mahsa. Charlie Todd from Improv Everywhere was the consultant to each team on their creative ideas. His advice was to make it crazy and zany.

Clint adopted the battle cry “go big or go home.” Tyana stood out on the women’s team for her negative comments. Mahsa solved that temporarily by sending Tyana, Lisa and Poppy out on a make-work project. The Fortitude creative concept was working out in a gym while eating popcorn (Indiana of course).

David had come with recent root canal work and he lost half of that tooth while eating a hard New York City bagel. That necessitated his departure to get his tooth fixed. I don’t think anyone on Octane was sorry that he was not there to help out, as he has proven to be a divisive presence with his aggression.

One of the other members of Fortitude mentioned that Mahsa had figured out that in order to be able to pin a loss on someone else they had to have a real share of the creative and execution aspects of the project. She changed course and set about trying to involve the 3 she had sent away, particularly Tyana. Donald Jr. observed during the final video taping that Mahsa was dominant, which could work against her if Fortitude lost.

Steuart devised a concept involving a popcorn fight individually with 6 small groups, then escalating to one with a large group. Anand was the director of video production. Ivanka observed that and asked “is it hilarious?” to which I answer “absolutely, it was a scream” and clearly worthy of becoming viral.

Trump played each video in the Boardroom. Tyana was not laughing during the Fortitude video but she was during the Octane video. Trump didn’t come right out and say it, but he effectively accused her of disloyalty to her team. Mahsa did accuse Tyana of that. The owner of Popcorn Indiana sort of liked the fortitude creative concept but felt that it did not go far enough. He said that the Octane video made him laugh but had too much violence. Trump asked Clint to comment. Clint responded that the Octane concept and spectacle went BIG. Anand was asked if Clint was an effective P.M. and responded that he was excellent. Wade was asked why he was not P.M. and he explained. David was asked why he was not there and he explained. Steuart stated that Octane was an excellent team WITHOUT David.

Mahsa was asked if she thought Fortitude had won. She responded “probably.“ Brandy added her agreement, but Tyana disagreed. Mahsa said Tyana did not contribute to either the creative concept or execution and repeatedly interrupted Tyana with “What was your idea?” until Trump told her to quit it.

Clint was asked if Octane had won. He responded yes and Steuart responded that they pulled it off well. Tyana explained that she liked the Octane video better because it funny. I think Steuart added that they shut down part of 5th Avenue at rush hour to film the video.

Donald Jr. and Ivanka gave the post-mortems from the Indiana Popcorn owner. He sort of liked the Fortitude creative concept but found it both clever and contrived and felt that it did not go far enough. Ivanka added that it was not an event but a commercial. He said that the Octane video made him laugh but had too much violence and the tag line was a bit unclear. Trump announced that Octane was the clear winner.

Mahsa explained that she had been attempting to coordinate 50 people during production and post-production of the video and Tyana did not help at all. Lisa chimed in that Mahsa had sent Tyana, Lisa and Poppy away on something make-work while critical creative decisions were being made. Trump began polling all of Fortitude on who should be fired. The entire team said Tyana (before getting to Lisa) preferred Mahsa to stay over Tyana. Mahsa nominated Tyana and Lisa to remain in the Boardroom and the rest were excused. Then even Lisa stated that she preferred Mahsa. Trump fired Tyana.

I would like to make the case for why neither Mahsa nor David is tempermentally suited to be Donald Trump's Apprentice. You can infer that leadership, winning record, good communications skills, creativity, interpersonal skills and teamwork are among the major factors that Trump considers in his decisions on who gets fired each episode and who gets to be the Apprentice each season. Both David and Mahsa are deficient in the last two categories, interpersonal skills and teamwork The closest analog of past Apprentice contestants to both Mahsa and David is Omarosa in my opinion. She served her purpose of creating conflict and ratings and then was jettisoned in the middle of both Apprentice 1 and Celebrity Apprentice 1 (A7). Her controversial personality effectively eliminated her from consideration as the Apprentice. I believe the same is happening to David and Mahsa.

Ye gods, now I'll have nightmares remembering Omarosa, there is a certain similarity with David and Masha. David in particular since he absolutely is not a team player in any sense of the word but is also a disruptor like Omarosa.

I didn't think either team produced a video that had a prayer of going viral but the men's video was at least in the street and attracted a crowd. Fortitude's video was an ad pure and simple, nothing that would be passed around on the web.

Brandy opened this episode by asserting that Mahsa lacks polish and that no one who had the habit of pointing in an accusatory way will ever be successful in business. I agree with Brandy. Clint had his meeting with Steve Forbes and again it appeared to be platitudes. Forbes predicted that Clint will be successful.

Trump stated to the assembled competitors that footwear is a $100 billion business worldwide. He introduced Rockport CEO Michael Rupp. Rupp stated that his new products have the overall theme of walkability and the introduction of the Rockport Spring Collection will be done by Octane and Fortitude that evening. Octane will be responsible for women’s shoes and Fortitude will be responsible for men’s shoes. A group of female models will be available to Octane and male models to Fortitude. The teams will be assisted by executive recruiters Catherine Rowan and Juan Betancourt taking the normal roles that Ivanka and Donald Jr. have. The P.M. for Octane is Wade and the P.M. for Fortitude is Stephanie.

Stephanie got right to the assignment of responsibilities to her teams. Kelly had Fashion show operations, Poppy and Lisa the creative responsible for clothing purchases and assignment of shoe types to models, Mahsa accounting (burying her where she cannot disrupt anything) and Brandy as the emcee. The theme they agreed on was “A Day in the Life of Tristan”. Stephanie thinks they are on the right track, but she wants to take more risk. The concept of having the male models doing final runway poses in briefs and shoes only was tossed out and Stephanie was very enthusiastic about it.

Wade first assigned Steuart and Anand as the creative guys responsible for supervision of the models and selection of their clothing. David had comedy club experience, so he was asked to do the emcee. Gene stepped up and stated that he too had superior presentation experience, so he wanted to share the emcee tasks. A theme was needed for the Octane presentation, but if they ever found one it was not apparent. Catherine arrived and talked to Wade, coming reaching the impression that the Octane efforts were well-organized. The female models arrived and Steuart and Anand were in their element.

The male models arrived at fortitude, followed by Juan. He talked to Stephanie and concluded that she demonstrated leadership qualities. Clothing for their models was then done by the handlers from each team. Poppy screwed up and only bought one pair of briefs when 8 were needed. Brandy quickly remedied this.

David and Gene prepared their presentations. Gene was clearly in trouble and not ready. He had 9 slides to complete when he should have been done. Gene had the opportunity to let David do it all, but he was stubborn and elected to stay with his task. Kelly put the male models through a practice runway walk and gave some of them specific advice on how to act.

The Rockport 2010 Spring Collection Fashion show began. Fortitude had Brandy as emcee and she did a superb job using a script that focused on the models and shoes without a lot of words. The male models strutted their stuff and the only problem was that one had pitted legs and should have been put in long pants instead of shorts that showed off his legs off to Fortitude’s disadvantage.

Gene was focused on his PC, reading long-winded descriptions to his audience and stumbling throughout. He even mixed up the name of a model and a shoe. I could just see Trump thinking “this was embarrassing” because it totally was. David’s part of the presentation was not shown. It was quite obvious that Octane had performed miserably and was going to lose, but Wade as they were leaving the stage area added “unless the women decided to put the male models naked on stage.” Is this an indication of things to come?

Trump asked why Brandy was chosen as emcee. I believe it was Stephanie who said she was sexy, suave and sophisticated. Trump absolutely agreed, telling Brandy she was fantastic. Someone asked why the model with the bad legs had been put in shorts. Kelly admitted that she had missed that in her focus on having a coherent stage show. Juan asked whose idea it was to take the risk of near nudity. Stephanie said it was her call and she stood by it. Trump said it was an amazing job and that Fortitude had blown away Octane in the judging by Michael Rupp. He stated that it was so overwhelming a victory by the women that he was excusing them right then. Stephanie as winning P.M. was going to have the opportunity to meet with Rupp.

The men were told by trump they were terrible. Gene’s presentation in particular was singled out as an embarrassment. Trump said that Gene burying himself behind his PC was a mistake vs. notes on paper. However, it was also clear that the content of Gene’s presentation had a lot of useless detail. Trump said that David wasn’t great either. Trump stated that he wanted to hear in the presentation that the models were beautiful. He asked why Steuart and Anand were not selected to do the presentation. The answer from Wade was that they had volunteered for the creative role and both David and Gene wanted to do the presentation and claimed the experience to do it successfully. Trump then asked why there was no rehearsal, at which Wade could have seen how bad the presentations were and maybe done some realignment to fix that. Trump stated that the ability to do public speaking and the ability to perform on stage are not the same and Wade should have known that and checked on David’s and Gene’s actual stage presence. Gene tried to defend his speaking ability, but he was obviously missing Trump’s point. At about this point I think it was Mahsa in the lounge area watching the Boardroom on TV who predicted that not one but two Octane members would be fired.

Trump ordered Fortitude to turn off their TV monitor so that the rest of his deliberations would be in private. He asked Juan what he thought. Juan responded . Trump asked Gene who he should fire. Gene, in an obvious attempt to prevent Wade from going down with the ship with him, stated that he took full responsibility for his own results. Trump fired him, then also fired Wade.

I have to say that this was completely fair and reasonable. Octane had terrible presentations and was totally outclassed by Fortitude. Multiple people were to blame on Octane and the two biggest offenders got the ax as they deserved.

It's still a bit early to predict who will be in the final 4, but I am going to fearlessly go ahead with that.

On Octane, the golden boys are Steuart and Anand. We haven't seen either one in a project manager role, so I expect that will happen soon. Clint has established himself as a decent P.M. David is going nowhere but home.

On Fortitude, we have now seen Stephanie and Brandy perform extremely well and Kelly do moderately well. Poppy has not had much of a public profile. Lisa has come across as a bit weak and my views on Mahsa had been clearly stated.

I see the final 4 at this time as Clint, Stephanie, Brandy (who will be tested as a P.M. first) and one other from the group of Poppy, Steuart and Anand depending on how well they do as P.M.s.

Stephanie, last episode’s winning P.M., got an offer to take the Rockport Advanced Management Training program from Rockport CEO Michael Rupp. Kelly and Liza were squabbling about who did what to whom. Steuart accused David of essentially being a horse’s ass, so David accuses him of throwing him under the bus.

Fortitude decided that Kelly would be their P.M. and Anand stepped up for Octane. Trump stated that the task was to create pedicab tours and to get licensed to operate them. Ivanka and Eric will be acting as his lieutenants. Both teams go to the licensing center to be tested on their ability to maneuver around oranges and blocks of wood. Everyone was licensed except Kelly and Mahsa, neither of whom will be able to drive a pedicab, limiting them to sales and other support roles.

The first task for both teams is to decide where their base of operations would be the next day. Octane chose Trump Tower, which is part of the Manhattan prime tourist areas, to go with their concept of Roman chariots and charioteers. They were targeting out-of-town tourists and also wanted to do a lot of pre-selling to have a customer base ready to be taken on tours the next day. Fortitude sent “3 blonds and Mahsa” out to scout locations. They came back with Stephanie’s recommendation to target rich men, which to her meant a Wall Street location. Kelly was reluctant to go there, but decided to accept that recommendation and set up there. The concept for Fortitude was “Babes on Bikes”.

Ivanka came to visit Octane and her discussions with Anand were quite positive about the chance of Octane’s concept succeeding. She did observe that David was in a very low energy mode and wondered if this would be the case the next day when the pedicab tours were operating. Clint found David attempting to disrupt the Octane planning efforts with deliberate off-topic forays, so he warned David to slow down his chatter. Steuart also chimed in with an attack on David.

With 6 women, Fortitude could use 4 of them to cover the operations of 3 pedicabs while Mahsa and Kelly were doing sales and other support roles. For Octane, 3 of the 4 had to be on the pedicabs. Anand appeared to be switching off with David from time to time. Liza was criticized by her teammates for misleading the public offering “free” tours that were not free. It was not until 1130am that Fortitude’s cabs started to get busy with the lunch hour crowd. Anand stated it was all about “execution and we put on a great tour.”

Eric came to visit Fortitude and asked Kelly who her best salesman was. She said Poppy, which incensed both Stephanie and Mahsa, who had both been doing a lot of off-bike sales. Eric’s personal observations were that Brandy and Poppy were both effective in selling and Kelly was not very effective. He had no comment about Mahsa and Stephanie.

It was now Boardroom time. Trump set the tone with a variety of questions. Early on Clint asked for the chance to say something and he stated that David was the most schizophrenic and disruptive person he had ever encountered in his life. He asked Trump to rid Octane of this plague. When David put his hand up in Clint’s face, Clint challenged him to leave it there a little longer so he could see what would happen to it. David was careful to remove it. Trump’s response was that, if Octane won, he could not given the rules and traditions of The Apprentice fire David.

He asked the inevitable question to Kelly of “Who was your weakest link?” Kelly tried to be diplomatic in his answer: “Liza has the most opportunity for growth.” Some squabbling following but Trump grew weary of it and cut it off with “Let’s find out who won.” Eric stated Fortitude had sold $320. Ivanka said Octane had sold $950. The men had killed the women. Octane was excused and Kelly as P.M. was in big trouble. Who would she try to set up to take her place as the one fired?

Trump told Kelly she was slaughtered by Octane and wanted to know why. Kelly responded that it was the location decision. He stated that the Trump Tower location was an excellent one, but that Wall Street was far from where tourists go and no sane New Yorker would buy a pedicab ride. He summarized that Fortitude had lost the minute it chose Wall Street. Trump continued to interrogate Kelly about Stephanie’s multiple roles. She responded that Stephanie was a pedicab driver, the head of sales, the person who set out the tour route and was critical in the decision on the location. Trump stated that it was a lot of roles for one person and asked what Kelly as P.M. was responsible for. Kelly responded overall coordination but Trump had made his point about too much delegation and putting too many expectations on one person.

Trump asked Mahsa who she would recommend firing. She said Liza. The same question to Poppy got the same answer. Liza defended herself by saying that she contributed indirectly to sales credited to others by the way in which she funneled them toward the pedicab operations area. Trump decided to excuse half the women and asked Kelly to choose the 2 she could bring back into the Boardroom. She chose Stephanie and Liza.

Kelly was asked what happened. She said Stephanie was responsible for sales, tour operations and the location decision. Stephanie responded that she is from Chicago and Canada, so she knows little about New York City from which to base an informed decision. Trump asked Liza who he should fire. Liza unhesitatingly said Kelly. Ivanka chimed in with the rhetorical (at this time) question “why didn’t you ask real pedicab companies about location?” Trump offered another idea: taking major input from New Yorker Mahsa on the location decision.

Trump was weary. He summarized with “Kelly, you failed the test, you failed the task (note the terrific alliteration), you’re fired.”

The members of Octane and Fortitude are chatting just after Liza and Stephanie returned without Kelly from the previous Boardroom. There was some discussion that Mahsa had revealed to Clint roughly how much the women’s team had made before they went into that Boardroom. To me that information is irrelevant, since you will find out soon enough anyway and cannot do anything with that information.

The competitors were brought to meet Donald Trump, Ivanka and Donald Jr. at the historic Schubert Theater on Broadway. Trump waxed eloquent about Broadway and he stated that the task was to take an aspiring Broadway musical and create a 15 minute presentation with marketing materials for potential Broadway financial backers. This task would be judged by a very special set of judges: John Yanover (producer and financial backer of the hit musical Memphis which performs at the Schubert), Daryl Roth (Broadway producer), Kristin Chenoweth (the actress and Broadway star). The criteria stated by Donald Jr. are the quality of the marketing materials and the quality of the presentation. Trump asked who the PMs are. They are Liza for Fortitude (who has never seen a Broadway play or musical) and Steuart for Octane. The teams would have the help of singer/actors and the concept originator, but no designers, producers or director as those was their roles.

The action shifts to the All Natural Snapple Theater (note the nice product placement although Snapple did pay for some real commercials later). A women named Kirsten has a musical that is about an 11 year old girl who meets a 12 year old boy for the first time and the struggles of young love. It is titled “Little Miss fix-It.” Octane has been assigned it to financially market. Composer and lyricist Ryan Scott Oliver has a musical Darling, a “dark deconstruction version of Peter Pan” set in 1929 Boston. Fortitude has been assigned to financially market it.

Each musical has a cast of about 7 or 8 Broadway quality singers/actors. Those songs give each team ideas on how to best market them. The “brain trust” doing this for the women is Liza, Poppy and Brandy. Liza has deliberately sent Mahsa and Stephanie off to do minor tasks because Mahsa is totally disruptive and disliked and Stephanie took too much credit for everything. Stephanie resented this because she has serious music industry background that could have been useful. The men similarly had initially excluded David by sending him to order and pick up food for the cast and for Clint, Steuart and Anand. When David came back and listened to the current state of the musical, he expressed a number of creative ideas, including his 500 foot helicopter view that the presentation should be by the singers themselves and not by members of Octane except for a brief intro and pitch. Steuart decide to put David in charge of the creative aspects of the presentation. David was to effectively be the new producer of Little Miss Fix-It and Steuart was going to give the presentation intro and pitch. As Steuart put it, if David screwed up then it would be easy to get him fired. During all of this, Donald Jr. arrived at Fortitude and Ivanka at Octane. Ivanka observed that things were in good shape and that David was acting much more responsibly. Liza had some issues with the black-and-white poster that Stephanie and Mahsa had taken for printing. She wanted color in it. They fixed it and the final poster was blessed by Liza. However, she gave the distinct impression she was trying to set Stephanie or Mahsa up for “the fall” if Fortitude lost.

Each team made their 15 minute presentation and the singing in particular in both was impressive. The narration by Steuart had a minor stumble on one word at the end. The judges cast their ballots privately to Trump and we move to the Boardroom.

Trump asked Steuart if David had been more productive. Steuart said absolutely and Clint seconded that when Trump asked him if he took back his observations from the previous episode (Clint didn’t but he did support David’s performance in this task). Trump noted that the judges were unhappy with Steuart’s stumble, so Steuart took time to explain how that happened and how minor it was. Trump now had the promotional materials brought out and presented to the other team for comment. The men’s key piece was a Playbill-style narrative on Little Miss Fix-It which I found very impressive. The women’s were much less informative and somewhat stark. The major deficiency for the women’s material was that it had no follow-up information about who to contact. Trump pounced on this. Liza tried to pass it off on Mahsa and Stephanie not proofing it and noticing the lack of that, but they rightly accused Liza of being in charge of the content. They claimed (rightly, I believe) that they were just following orders and the creative side was down by the “brain trust.” Trump tried to pin down whose fault it was but that didn’t appear to go anywhere.

Stephanie was asked by Trump why she had not volunteered to be P.M. if she had a musical background. She first said she did not know it was a musical. Trump did not buy that, as he knew he had told them it was a musical before the PM decisions were announced. I think what happened here is that Fortitude had made their irrevocable decision in advance because they wanted to put Liza on the firing line and Stephanie elected not to question that. Trump accused her of lying to him, a pretty serious charge in the Apprentice. He let her off the hook because this was a minor issue and not going anywhere. He had bigger fish to fry.

Trump announced the decision of the judges on who won the task. Daryl Roth favored the Octane presentation, Kristen Chenoweth the Fortitude presentation and John Yanover Octane. The men had triumphed and were excused to go watch the boardroom action. Trump told Steuart he would get to meet with the CEO of Snapple, Larry Young.

Trump opened the final Boardroom by stating that Kristen Chenoweth really liked Liza a great deal. Mahsa said something about how others on the team had also made major contributions. Trump zapped her with this accurate observation: “everything is always about you, Mahsa.” Brandy chimed in with the statement that she had all she could take of Mahsa (I think Mahsa’s fate was sealed right then because Brandy is clearly one of his favorites) and that Mahsa was lying. Mahsa said that she is a prosecutor and she points her finger at people naturally as a result. Trump told her that in polite company that is not done and people get highly offended by that behavior. Donald Jr. stated that Mahsa always tries to turn what anyone else says into a negative for that person and a positive for herself. He clearly is tired of it, so Mahsa had two big strikes against her. Trump piled on by twice stating that “Mahsa, you are a breaker.” I think he left the word “ball” out of that so it would pass the NBC censor. Brandy said Mahsa was difficult to work with and then she dropped an atom bomb on the proceedings: Mahsa had shared the amount the women had made before the Boardroom with the Men. To me this was trivial, as it was a “so what?” act. However, to Trump it was evidence of Mahsa’s disloyalty to her team. He clearly wanted to finally get rid of her. Mahsa knew she was in hot water so she predictably tried to deflect the pressure onto someone else, in this case Clint who she had given the information too. She admitted that she had lied, then stated that Clint had shared Men’s total sales with her. Clint, watching from the suite, was incensed and got Octane to join him in returning to the Boardroom to confront Mahsa, reveal that she was lying again and clear his own good name. Clint stated that Mahsa cannot keep her mouth shut, but he had no idea what the men’s total sales were (only his own), so he could have revealed nothing. He verified that Mahsa had told him the women had made $370. He also said Brandy was there and could corroborate him. Clint said that he is a straight shooter and the men did not know how much they made until in the Boardroom. Donald Jr. stated that the very presence of the men back in the boardroom, where they had nothing to gain and something to lose, spoke loudly. Trump asked David if he was backing Clint and gave what I thought weak support, but Steuart said that he was with Clint and what he said was accurate. Brandy, trying to put the lid on the coffin, then asked if they thought Mahsa was lying.

Trump then added that Mahsa was also disloyal to her team. He fired Mahsa. The Wicked Witch of the West was dead!

The irony here is that the person most responsible who should have been fired was Liza, whose limited leadership skills were not up to this task. She got off the hook because Mahsa stupidly acted in a way to deflect onto herself all the heat that Liza had earned.

Based on what I had seen to date, I am now willing to offer my predictions on who will be the Final 2. I think pretty boys Steuart and Anand will not make it that far. David might, but his performance would have to be exceptional. Clint has shown good leadership and is so solid that he is my first choice for F2. I think Liza will be gone soon, and Poppy is a nonentity. The 2 strongest women are Stephanie and Brandy. I like Brandy’s chances for F2 even though I like Stephanie’s performance a lot. Brandy has caught Trump’s attention in a number of positive ways and I expect her to be able to ride that wave all the way to F2.

I am delighted that Mahsa is gone! I also loved the fact that Clint went back into the boardroom with the other members of his team backing him. He has a way with words and a manner that is assertive but he stays cool and calm. Good traits for an apprentice. I think Clint will definitely make it to final 2. For the women, Brandy and Stephanie probably are the strongest on the Fortitude team but I like Poppy as well. It will be interesting to see what happens when the teams get changed.

I agree with you apskip concerning Mahsa. If she had been able to keep her mouth closed Liza would have gone home. Liza was a weak manager and she should have checked the playbill before it was printed, instead she was set up to fail because it was boring and flawed without the contact information.

I want to comment about David. For once he was involved, in his element and did a good job with the musical portion of the challenge. It's too bad he hasn't taken this much interest in the other tasks which is his fatal flaw for the Apprentice position. I think we got a glimpse of what he could be without the attitude and chip on his shoulder.

This episode began with Trump rearranging the teams. He sent Anand and David to Fortitude and Brandy and Liza to Octane. It looked like a fair swap to me. Trump next introduced Terry London, President of Macy’s, as part of the task to develop a 4 page advertorial for the Donald J. Trump Collection of shirts, ties and cufflinks, which is heavily marketed by Macy’s. The task will be judged by London and an unnamed female Trump Organization marketing executive based on the criteria of originality, creativity and final presentation of the advertorial. Trump asked who the PMs for the new teams were. The answer was David for Fortitude and Brandy for Octane. I think David was in big trouble because Brandy is clearly Trump’s favorite among all the competitors and she is more competent than he is.

The teams caucused and decided how to proceed. For Octane the first decision was a risky one by Brandy showing a female in a Trump Collection man’s shirt to emphasize sexuality, money and power as the highlight of their plan. Since a photo shoot was involved and time was limited, the selection of models for the photo shoot became priority #1. Clint and Liza were off on a side task as Brandy and Steuart got to the photo shoot location and discovered no models waiting as expected. Brandy made a command decision and decided that she and Steuart would be the photo shoot models. The photos of them were right on the edge, but did not go over the line of tastefulness in my opinion. Octane proceeded with editing and production of a striking ad.

David took a dictatorial approach. Stephanie allied with him, leaving Anand and Poppy to be the figurative water carriers, role that they felt demeaned by. The first decision was that the models would be shot in black-and-white and the clothing in color. That appeared to be a fine decision. David had his image of what he wanted and once he saw the first male model he “fell in love” with him. Anand later likened it to a homoerotic experience. David used that one model as the centerpiece of the entire 4 pages even though his skinny neck did not properly fit the smallest size shirt available. Stephanie later defended this action by stating that the model was 6’2” and should have had a bigger neck, even though it was obvious that he did not. Trump asked David if he was really gay, but he responded NO. Poppy came up with the concept of a back page with photos arranged in a “T” shape for “Trump.” However, that caused the photos to be quite small.

Eric visited Octane and noted that Brandy was not available to do her oversight of other tasks due to being the primary model. Donald Jr. visited Fortitude and noted that the models had not been fed lunch by 5pm due to supposed lack of follow-through by Anand and Poppy. Anand made the observation that “Mr. Trump is not in the business of rehabbing lost causes. That’s what David is.”

Each team made its presentation to Terry London and the Trump executive. Brandy had 2 minor stumbles but was otherwise good. Her presentation showed creativity but she misnamed the Donald J. Trump Collection as the Trump Collection. David did OK in the Fortitude presentation, but the models did not fit the clothes, particularly the front page model.

In the Boardroom, Trump asked his usual questions before honing in on David. He asked Clint if he was glad David was no longer on his team. Clint tried to be tactful, but he clearly was overjoyed. Trump asked Brandy if she was having an affair with Steuart. She responded no and that she liked older men. Donald Jr. interjected with “Hired,” which I think is likely to happen in a few weeks. David explained his vision of the ad. Anand and Poppy attacked him for leaving them out of the decision process and making bad decisions. Stephanie supported him, but when asked who on the team should be fired she said David should. Poppy additionally stated that she felt demeaned and shut out by David’s lack of sharing of team decisions. Anand had the same experience when he attempted to help David in the editing of the photos. Trump finally had the ads of each team shared with the other team and got the usual drivel from their comments about their opponents’ work. Then he told the teams that Octane had won a decisive victory and Brandy would get to meet with Terry London, then excused Octane.

The Boardroom proceeded to its inevitable conclusion. Given the lack of any real involvement of anyone else from his team in the key decision making, David was a dead duck and he knew it. Trump asked a series of questions, then David elected to have Anand excused. Trump was surprised because he expected it would be Stephanie, but I believe David correctly wanted someone who might support him in that final Boardroom rather than someone who totally opposed him. Trump used a feint to go after Poppy, stating that Terry London hated the back page which was her idea. However, it was David’s responsibility all the way and he did not shirk it. He went down as the captain of his ship.